Democrats have implored the FBI to look deeper into Trumps dealings with Russia and those of his aides, including former campaign manager Paul Manafort, who worked for the pro-Russian government of Ukraine, and Trump foreign-policy adviser Carter Page, who met with Russian government officials in July, including one believed to be connected to the gathering of information about the upcoming U.S. election, according to Yahoo News.
But GOP lawmakers wont sign on to the Democrats requests.
At a hearing of the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) complained that his Republican colleagues werent pressing Comey on the Trump campaign. Instead, I believe that the focus of this hearing will be more of the same: an attack on you, and your team at the Department of Justice, for declining to recommend criminal charges against Secretary Hillary Clinton, Conyers said.
In the past month, the top Democrats on four House committeesincluding those that have most strongly pursued questions about Clintons emailhave written to the FBI director asking him to investigate whether connections between Trump campaign officials and the Russian government may have contributed to hacks against the Democratic National Committee and other political organizations (PDF).
Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, meanwhile, asked the FBI to investigate, among other things, the meetings between Russian officials and Page. Reid was prompted to write to Comey after an intelligence briefing about the hacks on the DNC and Russian efforts to interfere with the election, two individuals with knowledge of the matter told The Daily Beast. (Page denies the meetings ever happened.)
Republican leaders decision not to investigate Trump represents an ironic turn for a party that only four years ago was being criticized for being too hawkish on Russia. Now, its Democrats who are being accused of using McCarthyite tactics.
